Belkin rep hiring folks to write fake reviews on Amazon?

Back in our day, if you weren't busy walking up uphill both ways, you'd write your own dang fake reviews on Amazon, but apparently Belkin's Michael Bayard -- or a clever impostor looking to smear the man's good name -- decided it'd be easier and totally non-obvious to hire people on Mechanical Turk to do it for him. For a whopping $0.65 cents you can write a 5 out of 5 review of a Belkin product, and downrank negative reviews while you're at it. Michael Bayard is a Business Development Representative at Belkin, and seems to have pulled the Mechanical Turk posting, but the him and his company have yet to comment publicly. Say it ain't so, Mike!

[SmoothMarx Posted Jan 18th 2009 2:48PM]

To: Paul Miller

You should've closed out with something like "These days, blog writers are 100% for sale, but definitely not for $0.65. Somewhere round the $1000 mark".

[Decoy Posted Jan 18th 2009 4:13PM]

Is .65 more or less than what you got for that, iEye?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 18th 2009 4:16PM]

This isn't new. I've had negative reviews deleted by Amazon. I also know a product that is so bad, most reviewers say it deserves zero stars, yet it got glowing reviews from a handful of people. Only problem is the reviews were obviously cribbed from a marketing memo.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 18th 2009 7:39PM]

I'm always suspect of a positive review that fails to mention one downside to a product. Every product has something you can bitch about, and if you don't then you're a fan boy or you're not doing a thorough review.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 18th 2009 7:41PM]

Might not be illegal, but it's not going to buy you any consumer trust either.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 19th 2009 3:36AM]

"Write in US English only"

Hmm, I think Michael can kiss my arse on this condition.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 19th 2009 12:16PM]

Who says this is not a spoof? It could be real or it could be a fake attack on a company/person. Why does everyone automatically believe this?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 19th 2009 4:45PM]

I would rather give 5/5 for chinese sh*t, instead of good for nothing Belkin.

[Maine82 Posted Jan 21st 2009 12:14PM]

An excellent reason as to why Amazon should only allow you to post reviews if you have purchased the item via their site. (Verified purchased). B&H Photo does this on their site.